Loons rally late, snap losing streak

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, July 11, 2008

So after getting in an early hole against the Burlington Bees, the Great Lakes Loons used a four-run sixth inning to fight back and beat the Bees 6-3 Friday night at Dow Diamond.

"That's what we have to do if we're going to win a lot of games," Loons' manager Juan Bustabad said of his team scoring six runs in the comeback win. "That's what happened tonight, and that's a good start with good production from the offense. We just have to keep it going."

The win snapped the Loons' four-game losing streak.

It looked to be another long night for Great Lakes after Burlington leadoff hitter and former Loon Juan Rivera singled through the right side on the game's first pitch. Johnny Giavotella followed with a hit-and-run single to send Rivera to third.

David Lough hit a hard chopper back to pitcher Victor Garate, who threw to third to catch Rivera in a rundown for the first out.

During the rundown, Giavotella advanced to third and Lough moved to second, and Giavotella scored on a sacrifice fly by Jason Taylor for the game's first run. After rightfielder Alfredo Silverio caught the fly ball, he threw to third to try to get Lough. The throw was off the mark and got past third baseman Brandon Taylor, allowing Lough to score and make it 2-0.

The Bees extended their lead to 3-0 in the third, beginning with a walk to Giavotella, who then stole second. He came around to score on a throwing error by Brandon Taylor, whose throw got away from first baseman Jaime Ortiz.

"Normally before, we would have just shut it down and lost this game," Bustabad said. "Now it's a different mindset, a different attitude, and we know what we have to do."

In the bottom of the sixth, Great Lakes exploded for four runs to take the lead and show off the new attitude Bustabad hopes is instilled in his players.

After Erik Kanaby walked to open the inning, the Bees pulled starter Matt Mitchell, who had struck out six and held the Loons to three hits in five innings. With reliever Joe Augustine on the mound, Silverio singled to put runners on first and second.

Andrew Lambo followed with a double to the right-centerfield gap to score Kanaby and Silverio to cut the lead to 3-2. The rally stalled a bit with back-to-back outs, but Garabedian ignited the crowd of 4,741 with a two-run home run over the leftfield wall to give the Loons a 4-3 lead.

"It's a different attitude now and we're not going to do that," Bustabad said about giving up when losing. "We had a talk the other day and said everything is positive and we don't worry about that anymore. If they score two now, we think to ourselves, 'OK, now we have to score two and come back and win this.' We showed it today."

The next three innings belonged to Great Lakes reliever Garrett White, who relieved Garate in the sixth inning. White allowed just one baserunner - the first batter he faced - and then set the Bees down in order in the seventh and eighth innings.

The lefthanded White (1-0) gave up just one hit and struck out three.

The Loons added two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run homer by Jaime Ortiz to make the score 6-3.

Loons' closer Miguel Ramirez came in and loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, but got Joe Billick to pop out in foul territory to end the game.

Lambo was the only Loon with multiple hits, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Ortiz and Garabedian also each drove in two.

With the win, the Loons (8-14) avoided a three-game sweep by the Bees (12-10), and now look to ride the momentum when they begin a three-game series with the Cedar Rapids Kernels tonight at 7:05 p.m. at Dow Diamond.

Before Friday's game, the Loons announced that reliever Matt Sartor was promoted to the Inland Empire 66ers, the A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 25 relief appearances for the Loons, the right-handed Sartor had a 4-2 record with a 3.83 ERA. He also struck out 66 batters and held opposing hitters to a .215 batting average in 51 2/3 innings.

To replace Sartor, the Loons activated righthanded pitcher Anthony Tomey for Friday's game. Tomey, who wears No. 29 for the Loons, is a Detroit native and former Detroit Tigers' minor leaguer and becomes the second Michigan native to play for the Loons. Tomey spent 2004 and 2005 in the Midwest League, and was 3-4 with a 4.94 ERA with the Erie Seawolves (the AA affiliate of the Tigers) this season.